Dr. Maulana Karenga

Dr. Maulana Karenga is professor and chair of the Department of
Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach. He is also
chair of the President's Task Force on Multicultural Education and
Campus Diversity at California State University, Long Beach. Dr.
Karenga holds two Ph.D.'s: his first in political science with
focus on the theory and practice of nationalism (United States
International University) and his second in ethics with a focus on
the classical African ethics and ancient Egypt (University of
Southern California).

He is also the director of the Kawaida Institute of Pan-African
Studies, Los Angeles, and national chairman of the
Organization Us, a cultural and social change organization. The
Organization Us, which simply means us Black people, is so named to
stress the communitarian focus of the organization and its
philosophy, Kawaida, which is an ongoing synthesis of the best of
African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world. Dr.
Karenga and Us have had a profound and far-reaching effect on Black
intellectual an political culture. Through the teaching and practice
of Kawaida, Us emerged in the 60's as a vanguard organization. Us has
played a vanguard role in shaping the Black Arts Movement, Black
Studies, Black Student Union Movement, Afrocentricity, rites of
passage programs, the study of ancient Egyptian Classical African
Civilizations, the independent school movement, African life-cycle
ceremonies, the Simba Wachanga youth movement, and Black theological
and ethical discourse.

Dr. Karenga and Us have also played a key role in Black United
Front efforts serving on the founding and the executive committee
of the Black Power Conferences of the 60's, the Black United
Front, the National African American Leadership Summit, the Black
Leadership Retreat and the Million Man March/Day of Absence. They
also created the National Association of Kawaida Organizations (NAKO)
as a cooperative framework for the many organizations who subscribe
to Kawaida philosophy but maintain their own independent structures.
Celebrating its thirtieth anniversary in 1995, Us continues its
activities under the motto, "Anywhere we are, US is" and with three
basic focuses of "Struggle, service and institution-building."

Dr. Karenga is author of numerous scholarly articles and ten
books. Included in his works are Introduction to Black Studies, the
most widely used intro text in Black Studies; his retranslation and
commentary on Ancient Egyptian texts which is titled,
Selections From The Husia: Sacred Wisdom of Ancient
Egypt, The African American Holiday of Kwanzaa,
and The Book of Coming Forth By Day.

An activist-scholar of national and international recognition, he
has lectured of the life and struggle of Africa peoples on the major
campuses of the U.S.A. and in Africa, the People's Republic of China,
Cuba, Trinidad, Britain and Canada. Also, Dr. Karenga served as the
chair of the African American delegation to the Black and African
World Festival of Art and Culture in Lagos, Nigeria, (1977);
spokesperson for the Delegation of Independent African Schools in
the U.S. to the People's Republic of China, (1977);
representative to FESTPAC in Dakar, Senegal (1987); ; and gave
the inaugural lecture to establish Black History Month in
Britain, in London (1987).

Dr. Karenga is also widely known as the creator of Kwanzaa, an
African American and Pan-African holiday celebrated also in Africa,
the Caribbean, South American -- especially Brazil, and African
communities in Britain and other European countries.

Moreover, he is the recipient of numerous awards for scholarship,
leadership and community service including: The National Leadership
Award for Outstanding Scholarly Achievements in Black Studies from
the National Council for Black Studies and the Diop Exemplary
Leadership Award from the Department of African American
Studies--Temple University. He also served as a Visiting Professor in
Black Politics at Stanford University and as a Distinguished Visiting
Scholar in Black Studies a the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

Finally, Dr. Karenga, as chairman of Us, served as a member of the
executive council of the National Organizing Committee of the Million
Man March/Day of Absence and authored the Mission Statement for this
joint project, as well as co-edited the recent book: The Million
Man March/Day of Absence: A Commemorative Anthology.

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